“The taste of stockfish is life… We can’t cook without stockfish.” That’s the verdict of women at the bustling Onyingbo market in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, as they carefully choose pieces of the specially dried cod. Heads stare up from market stalls while whole bodies hanging on metal hooks sway in the humid breeze. Bundles of the golden-coloured fish have been cut into different sizes and are sold by weight.

So how did stockfish first arrive on Nigerian shores?
The process of drying it means that stockfish can last for years – and that made it perfect to be used as food for the West African people enslaved and sent on long sea voyages to the Americas, says Norwegian historian Frank Jensen.

But, as Mr Jensen points out, it was the Biafran civil war in Nigeria 50 years that really set the scene for stockfish to become a must-have ingredient in Nigerian cuisine.

In the course of three bloody years, more than a million people died – mostly from hunger. It was a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale, and churches and relief agencies from all over the world joined together to fly in emergency supplies. Norway’s contribution was stockfish.

It doesn’t need refrigeration, and it is full of protein and vitamins – perfect to combat kwashiorkor, the malnutrition that characterised the Biafran war.

“The single weapon against kwashiorkor was stockfish,” says Edwin Mofefe, who was five years old when the war broke out. “It was our medicine.”

For years Mr Mofefe couldn’t eat stockfish because it brought back too many harrowing memories of the war.

Now, finally, he can not only stomach it, he has come to adore it for the depth of flavouring it brings to his favourite egusi or melon seed soup.

Fifty years on, stockfish has turned from an emergency, life-saving ration into a staple food – and a key part of Nigerian culinary identity.

More here... http://nigeriarendezvous.com/nigerias-love-for-norwegian-stockfish/

"...stockfish has turned from an emergency, life-saving ration into a staple food – and a key part of Nigerian culinary identity."

www.nairaland.com/3654604/eat-these-fruits-regularly-grow-healthy-reproductive-organ

Profound

Paaannla, that fish mad inside Efo.

happysharing:


In the course of three bloody years, more than a million people died – mostly from hunger. It was a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale, and churches and relief agencies from all over the world joined together to fly in emergency supplies. Norway’s contribution was stockfish.

It doesn’t need refrigeration, and it is full of protein and vitamins – perfect to combat kwashiorkor, the malnutrition that characterised the Biafran war.

Norway see us finish sha. Other countries dey give sardine and giesha , Norway give us panla.

Mods... repost and Bolden the title abeg!

okporoko agworo agwo na ukpaka ya na nkwu elu..

cheii!!!

If stockfish no dey egusi soup.no b egisi soup

The aroma is salivating in ogbono soup

I love the aroma that emanates from any food prepared with stock fish.

Yum Yum

Only the head na

Delicious, even sweeter than the cow meat that is causing so much bloodshed.

The good thing about the Igbos is that they always see opportunities to make money in every thing that happens. They hardly say NO to business opportunities or proposals. And their believe almost always works for them.

Stockfish honestly is simply the best!

That's is my mum business.......and that why people call her nwanyi okporoko in my neighborhood and in the market.

gmoney12:
okporoko agworo agwo na ukpaka ya na nkwu elu..

cheii!!!

Informative!!!

May Obasanjo Never Write me a letter.

I'm not a fan of OBJ but one of my prayer points has always been that may Obasanjo never write me a letter.
Obasanjo may have done exact or more evil than whoever he's writing to admonish but while OBJ always escape repercussions, whoever he writes to admonish are not always lucky.

OBJ's involvement in any issue signifies the imminent end of that issue.

First he wrote to Shagari when the latter was soaked in mismanagement of the economy few months later the military smashed Shagari government.

In 1995 he then wrote to Abacha and described him as a stone age dictator, the letter landed him in trouble, He was almost killed. But after his death sentence was converted into prison terms, he wrote another letter to Abacha titled NO CONDITION IS PERMANENT, Where he said, "I was a head of state yesterday, today, I'm in jail. You're the head of state today, tomorrow, your condition may be worse than mine...".
Indeed, Abacha's future was worse as he ended inside the grave!!!

OBJ didn't write himself while in power but instead wrote his deputy, Atiku Abubakar. Atiku has become a shadow of his pre-1999 self since then.

It wasn't clear whether he wrote Yaradua, a terminally ill former Kastina governor he imposed on Nigeria....but he came out publicly and asked him to resign!!!

He also didn't spare GEJ he wrote him in a letter titled BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE, But it was actually late before the letter was written. Jonathan, today, has become a sorrowful history.

His latest letter to Buhari is no joke,
Take it or not, Buhari needs absolute care else the letter becomes his political abattoir

Beg Obasanjo for me whenever you see him, may he never write me a letter.
Copied!!!

How does it taste..

Praise God I bought my first ever ride yesterday

Stockfish inside Ogbono Soup is bae

sexybbstar:
I love the aroma that emanates from any food prepared with stock fish.

Gimme ur azz n throway stockfish

OMG
I just followed the link and read the whole article.
It is surprising and sad that most of the stock fish we eat today is still being Imported!!!
Dried fish we can produce locally

Wao, never knew this.
I'm sure even my mum doesn't know too. All she knew was that her mum carried her and ran with other people to their house when one thing like kite was seen in the air. Her dad had a lot of yam barn so they never lacked food.

I think the war didn't get to her village cos she said lots of strangers took shelter in their village.

I dislike the fish, most especially the fish odour

Okporoko, I am a fan.

panla

Solmax:
OMG
I just followed the link and read the whole article.
It is surprising and sad that most of the stock fish we eat today is still being Imported!!!
Something we can produce locally

where do you think it can be produce locally?